When green fuel is dirty

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Green energy subsidies, regulations, and mandates are very often corporate welfare boondoggles that enrich the well connected at the expense of the taxpayer, ratepayer, and small businessman. When I point out the special interest connections in "green policy," a typical liberal response is "who cares who's getting rich if it helps the planet?"

But any time politicians are picking winners and losers in industry, we always should suspect that technologies and policies will be favored not for what best helps the planet but through cronyism.

Also important when considering the sort of Big Ideas our politicians love, is unintended consequences. Sometimes what's supposed to help the planet ends up hurting the planet.

A prime example of "green policy" hurting the environment: biomass.

Check out this article by investigative reporter Ronnie Greene, and the video below. Here's the lead of Greene's article:

Just 12 miles apart in the belly of California, a pair of 12.5 megawatt power plants fouled the air with a toxic brew of pollutants — nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and particulate matter. They released thick plumes and visible dust. They failed to install proper monitoring equipment, and failed to file reports on their emissions.

Another instance of coal plants polluting the environment?

Not quite. These are biomass power plants, part of the so-called green wave of the future.